There are a number of film clubs in the Hudson Valley for those who want to move beyond watching just blockbuster flicks. Photo Credit: Newsday / Ana P. Gutierrez

If your interest in cinema goes beyond box office blockbusters and Oscar-nominated movies, you're the perfect candidate to join a film club. Lucky for you, there are many in the Hudson Valley. Here are four notable clubs that cater to different ages and interests in Westchester County.

Synopsis: Co-founding Talk Cinema in 1992, Harlan and Susan Jacobson found their first home for the film club at Lincoln Center in New York City, and started welcoming members to Purchase College screenings in 2000.

Synopsis: Founded by Beth Kochen and Marilyn Ackerman in 1980, the Westchester Cinema Club touts itself as the first film club in the nation to screen full-length, first-run movies before their public release. Its first meetings were held in another Central Avenue theater, the Scarsdale Fine Arts Cinema building (which closed in 2006), but shifted to Clearview Plaza Cinema in the late '90s due to popular demand. Schwartz, who had been a recurring guest speaker, took over as host about four years ago. Coffee and light refreshments are served before each screening.

Why the host likes movies: "Movies that get the best response in the club, and that people love, are the ones that strike a chord emotionally," Schwartz said. "It's always the emotional component that's most important."

Synopsis: Founded by Weiner in March 2009, Friday Night Films is open exclusively to high school students, who help curate the films and shape discussions after screenings. "I wanted teens to have the same opportunity to experience Q&As with award-winning filmmakers that the adults [at the Burns] have," Weiner said. "Friday Night Films allows for that."

Active members: About 40

Time and day of meetings: 7 p.m. Fridays (usually the first Friday of the month)

Seasons active: Year-round; next meeting is Feb. 8

Are tickets available through subscription, walk-up or both? They're free; just show up

Cost: Free

Is the next season sold out? No

Past guests: "Winter's Bone" director Debra Granik and "Tarnation" documentarian Jonathan Caouette, whose Friday Night Films screening marked the "only time he screened the film for teenagers," according to Weiner.

Why the host likes movies: "The thing that resonates for me about movies, and the reason has a great deal to do with why I work at JBFC, is that film is a window onto unknown experiences: Places we've never been. Obstacles we've never faced. People we've never met," Weiner said. "It's a wonderful way to familiarize [ourselves] with life and culture. And it always seems, when the credits roll, that it all comes back to the same old story. How very similar our stories are regardless of who we are or where we're from."

Synopsis: As a critic working for The Journal News in 2001, Fine launched a film club at the Jacob Burns Film Center, but when he and the newspaper parted ways a few years later, he "had to give that up," he said. In 2005, he found a new home for the film club at the Emelin, where he's been ever since. "I enjoyed doing it [at the Burns], and felt like there was a definite market for a program like this elsewhere in Westchester," Fine said.

Active members: 260

Time and day of meetings: 7:30 p.m. select Wednesdays; six films per season

Why the host likes movies: "Movies allow you to get out of your own head and escape to a world you otherwise might never get to visit," Fine said. "They illustrate and illuminate our lives with an immediacy of no other medium, even as they capture and document moments of life and history forever. There's nothing more exciting that being swept up unexpectedly in a story or a character and plunged into that world for a couple of hours."